Week 16 Chicago Marathon Training plus a Rabies Advisory in Central Park?

Rabies Advisory in Central Park? 

Central Park is my favorite place in the world. What other large city has a hilly, 6 mile race track in the middle their city? Sometimes when I run in Central Park, I see a raccoon, skunk, or other little critter. Once earlier this year I saw a raccoon so big that I at first thought it was a little dog. I froze in my tracks... it froze...my heart starting beating super fast....I suspect the same for the raccoon....then it thought about what to do.....I was still frozen....and then it scampered into the North Woods of the park. Today as we were walking around Central Park, we saw the rabies advisory sign above. I did some searching online and found a bunch of articles saying that 3 rabid raccoons were found in Central Park in 2009 and that 20 animals tested positive for rabies throughout New York City .  What I find peculiar about this is that this is the first I've heard of it.  Maybe I live under a rock?  My kids, 4 and 2, go to a school on Central Park West and go to Central Park to play everyday (definitely lucky kids).  I am in Central Park almost every day and I go with my family to Central Park every weekend. Despite all of this, today was the first day I saw one of these signs or heard of a rabies advisory, nearly 10 months after the rabies alert came out.  I guess it took them a while to get the word out, because surely I would have seen those signs somewhere or heard about it somehow.  I really would have panicked had I known that the big dog-like raccoon I was near might have been rabid.


Now for my Chicago Marathon Week 16 Summary
I just finished week 16 of my Chicago Marathon training.  Only 1 week until the race (10/10/10).  I'm in heavy taper mode this week.  I'm running 3 miles on Tuesday, 4 on Wednesday, and 3 on Thursday.  Then I will take off Friday (travel day to Chicago) and Saturday.  Hopefully I'll be fresh for race day.  The forecast looks dry, with a temperatures projected to be in the low 70s.  Uh oh.  The low the night before is projected to be in the mid 50s, so hopefully with a 7:30 A.M. race start time, so hopefully it will be cool at the start.  Of course we all know that weather projections a week out are worthless, but all marathon runners look at repeatedly to get the latest updates.

I had a good week of training for week 16.  I ran 5 times, 27 miles (5.2, 6, 5, 3, and 8 miles).  I feel good, although my right knee/IT band started hurting yesterday and I caught a cold on Friday too.  My 3rd marathon taper and my third cold during the marathon taper.  Oh well.  I also got my New York Road Runners volunteer event done this week by volunteering for the 1.7 mile Norway Run (my friend JS came in second overall with a 5:01 per mile pace - he is awesome!) and the 13.1 mile Grete's Gallop half marathon.  Since I have run 9 races and volunteered for 1 race in 2010, I now have automatic entry into the 2011 New York City Marathon.  Totally sweet!!!!!!!!

Over the last week, I listened to my body and ran easy, letting my body dictate my speed.  What's funny is that all of my easy runs have gotten much faster over the last few weeks.  3 of my 5 runs were done at a sub 8 minute pace (5.2 miles at 7:58 pace, 6.04 miles at 7:49 pace, and 8 miles at a 7:42 pace).  My other 2 runs were 5 miles at an 8:25 per mile pace (in Washington DC, where I stopped to take a lot of pictures) with a moving average of 8:02 per mile and a very easy 3 miles at 8:39 pace.  No question that my fitness level is at its peak right now. 

For my 8 mile run today, I went out very easy because I was feeling crappy because of my cold.  A half mile into my run in Central Park I looked down at my watch and it showed a pace in the low 8s.  It felt very easy to me, so I held the pace.  After I was warmed up (usually takes 3-5 miles), I felt even better and started to push a little.  I still felt great, so I pushed miles 3 and 4, took the pedal off for miles 5 and 6, still felt great, so I pushed miles 7 and 8, finishing mile 8 at a 6:37 per mile pace.  A great and confidence building final run before tapering.  My splits in order were (click here for the Garmin File)

mile 1 - 8:11
mile 2 - 8:00
mile 3 - 7:44
mile 4 - 7:22
mile 5 - 8:08
mile 6 - 8:00
mile 7 - 7:32
mile 8 - 6:37

Overall - 7:42 per mile

I'm excited to go home for the weekend.  I arrive in Chicago on Friday, will go to Kenosha on Friday to stay with my mom Friday night (which I'm really looking forward to), then will go to my friend RL's house in Highland Park on Saturday.  We will go to the marathon expo on Saturday, I will stay at his house Saturday night, then we will drive to the race Sunday morning (one of RL's friends is also running the marathon and will come with us).  I will come back to NYC on Sunday night.

Recently, a guy that I met doing my first triathlon sent me some pictures from the event, and here is the one of me that I liked...

Chicago Marathon Training Summary - Weeks 14 and 15; Vacation in Vancouver, Canada

Weeks 14 and 15 of my 17 week Chicago Marathon training is done.  Yes!!!  I am now in taper mode now, which I am very excited about.  I feel great and am 95% healthy.  My knees and IT bands feel great, with the exception of the ganglion cyst that continues to sit behind my left knee.  It doesn't bother me when I run, but I definitely feel it the next day after a long run.  I've had the cyst on and off since March.  It goes away when I reduce my mileage and gets bigger when I do long runs.  Overall, I'm very pleased and happy to be feeling so good at this point in my marathon training.  For my previous 2 marathons (NYC 2009 and Kenosha Wisconsin 5/2010), I was extremely fatigued at this point of my training, so much so that I desperately needed the taper.  This time around, I feel so good that I don't even feel like I need the taper (although I'm definitely still going to taper so I am fresh for the marathon on 10/10/10).  For this my marathon training, my motto has been "less is more".  After my last marathon on 5/1/2010 (and during my training), I had severe IT band friction along my right knee and bursitis behind my left knee.  Both required a cortisone shot to get better.  I decided that running 6 days/50 miles a week was too hard on my body.  My doctor recommended physical therapy and triathlons, saying "you never do enough swimming, biking, or running to really hurt yourself".  So I went out and bought a road bike and started swimming (I had never owned a road bike before and hadn't gone swimming since high school).  I picked a Hal Higdon easy marathon training schedule and started my training.  This schedule requires running 4 days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday), with not as many long runs on the weekend.  For my NYC marathon training, I did 3 long runs of 20 miles.  For Kenosha, I did 4 long runs of 20 miles.  For the upcoming Chicago Marathon, I only did one 20 mile run (during week 14).  We shall see if that helps or hurts me on October 10th.  I also have been doing leg strengthening exercises that I learned about during physical therapy.  To my surprise, I found that my legs were weak (and in particular my glutes), so since I learned this I have been doing exercises at home with big rubber bands to strengthen my glutes and legs, which has really helped.  Additionally, bike riding has really strengthened my legs.  Finally, I have been trying to get more sleep.  While I haven't been great at getting enough sleep during my training, typically averaging about 6.5 hours per night, during our vacation in Vancouver I had 4 days were I got at least 8 hours of sleep a night and another 2 where I got more than 7 hours.  On the day we got home, I slept almost 10 hours and woke up feeling like a million bucks.  I have read all over the place that sleep in the single best recovery method from heavy physical activity, and I definitely feel rested after our vacation.  I also regularly do ice or cold water baths with Epsom salts.

Week 14 Summary - peak marathon training week

• 6 workouts - ran 5 times (43 miles in total), cycled once (43 miles, approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes) - total workout time approximately 8.5 hours over 5 days.
• Monday - 5 miles (8:19 pace) - heart rate monitor battery dead
• Tuesday - 10 miles (8:19 pace) - heart rate monitor battery dead
• Wednesday - 5 miles (8:19 pace) - heart rate monitor battery dead
• Thursday - Off day - travel to Vancouver
• Friday - 20 miles (8:47 pace, ran negative splits and stopped many times to take pictures (see below) - heart rate monitor battery dead
• Saturday - Off day
• Sunday - Brick workout -  2 hour and 30 minute bike ride (43.34 miles) followed immediately by a 3 mile run (overall 7:39 pace) - with the first mile off the bike at a 6:48 pace, which I was working hard for.  Slowed down after that.
• Overall, started out each of my runs easy (except for Sunday) and finished strong.  Had a few workouts where I ran 1-2 miles hard with splits in the 6s

Week 15 Summary - 6 workouts - ran 4 times (31 miles, 5, 8, 6, and 12 mile runs) and cycled twice (once on a trainer for 55 minutes, alternating between 5 easy minutes and 5 hard minutes) and once for 30 miles in Central park

• Continued to feel good and really enjoyed my workout on the bike trainer.  I definitely need to buy one for our apartment for winter training (plus I feel like I got a different type of workout which I liked).  Can anybody recommend a good trainer to buy at a reasonable price?  Does anybody know of a used one for sale?  I will be doing a lot of trainer work this winter to build my base for my Ironman Canada race on 8/28/2011.

Over the last 10 days, we were on vacation in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  We had a great time (although it rained almost the entire time we were there - we only had 1 sunny day out of the 10 days we were there).  We stayed with our friends PN and MM, which was great (thanks Paul and Miranda, we really appreciate it!)  Both PN and MM are also training for Ironman Canada in August 2011 (the three of us will be doing the race together).  I trained with Paul 3 times while I was there, which was great (he ran the first 13 miles of my 20 mile training run with me, we did a brick together, a 2 hour and 30 minute bike ride immediately followed by a 20 minute run, and a 50 minute run together).  Paul is an extremely talented and gifted athlete  - he was nearly a professional cyclist and left me in the dust on the bike when the hard part of his workout started, and during the brick run, he ran the first mile off the bike at a sub 6 minute per mile pace (while I was happy with my 6:48 per mile first mile off the bike split, I was easily far behind him). 

By far, the best part of the week was our daughter Kaiya turning 2 on 9/21 (I can't believe that she is 2 already!).  So, for the second consecutive year, we celebrated her birthday in Vancouver and Miranda and Paul's house.

Here is a picture of Kaiya while at Whistler (she picked out and put on the hat herself)

Some pictures from my 20 mile long run in Vancouver:

I ran along the water every day - absolutely beautiful

I took a wrong turn and my 20 mile long run unexpectedly became partly a trail run.  I have a new-found respect for trail running.  It is hard and hilly!!  This is a view from the top of one of the trails as I head back to easy, flat running....

A 137 meter pool in Kits - they keep the water cold and allow wetsuits!  A triathlete's dream!  Remind me again, why do we live in New York City?

The first sign I saw as my long run became a trail run.  Hmmm....

The trail run begins

starting to get into the trails....man was is hilly and muddy!  All I was thinking was "where the heck am I?" and "I hope I don't get bitten by a tick!"

blurry because I was running to get out of there fast!

 A nice creek along the trail....